aWe present a study of the reactions of the meteoritic mineral schreibersite (Fe,Ni) 3 P, focusing primarily on surface chemistry and prebiotic phosphorylation. In this work, a synthetic analogue of the mineral was synthesized by mixing stoichiometric proportions of elemental iron, nickel and phosphorus and heating in a tube furnace at 820 1C for approximately 235 hours under argon or under vacuum, a modification of the method of Skála and Drábek (2002). Once synthesized, the schreibersite was characterized to confirm the identity of the product as well as to elucidate the oxidation processes affecting the surface. In addition to characterization of the solid product, this schreibersite was reacted with water or with organic solutes in a choline chloride-urea deep eutectic mixture, to constrain potential prebiotic products. Major inorganic solutes produced by reaction of water include orthophosphate, phosphite, pyrophosphate and hypophosphate consistent with prior work on Fe 3 P corrosion. Additionally, schreibersite corrodes in water and dries down to form a deep eutectic solution, generating phosphorylated products, in this case phosphocholine, using this synthesized schreibersite.

Perylenediimide functionalized bridged siloxane nanoparticles were prepared by direct hydrolysis and condensation of a perylenediimide silane precursor in the presence of a catalytic amount of tetraethoxysilane (TEOS). The sizes of the particles were controlled by adjusting organotrialkoxysilane, base, and TEOS concentrations. Using this modified Stöber method, we were able to incorporate a higher load of organic content (∼70%) into the siloxane core compared to typical organically modified Stöber silica nanoparticles. The size, shape, and surface morphology of these functionalized particles were visualized using transmission electron microscopy. Their compositions were confirmed by FTIR, thermogravimetric analysis, and elemental analysis. The photovoltaic performance of these nanohybrids in the poly(3-hexylthiophene) polymer matrix was evaluated. The device made from a sample annealed at 150 °C showed reasonably good photovoltaic performance with a power conversion efficiency of 1.56% under standard test conditions of AM 1.5G spectra at an illumination intensity of 100 mW cm(-2).

The formation of alanine and glycine oligomers in films produced by drying aqueous mixtures of lactic acid and silica nanoparticles has been studied as a model prebiotic reaction. The addition of silica results in alanine or glycine enrichment in the polymers. Oligomerization proceeds through ester-mediated peptide bond formation in an acidic and evaporative environment at temperatures as low as 85 °C. For both amino acids, the dominant species produced in the presence of silica and lactic acid are rich in amide bonds and deficient in ester linkages. At higher temperatures, glycine and alanine oligomers contain only a single hydroxy acid residue conjugated to the peptide N terminus. Similar product distributions occur with silica particles prereacted with lactic acid, which suggests the catalytic role of a functionalized surface. This work highlights the role minerals might have served in transitioning from oligomers with both ester and amide linkages (depsipeptides) to peptides in a prebiotic context.